


i got you, brother.

by librastrai



Series: team clvr drabbles. [1]
Category: RWBY
Genre: AZRE Universe, Canon Related, Character Death, Gen, Grief, Hurt No Comfort, Team CLVR, sibling dynamics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-24
Updated: 2020-11-24
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:22:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,890
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27702710
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/librastrai/pseuds/librastrai
Summary: Red rimmed verdant eyes struggled to lift from where they were fixated on the floor beside the slab. She … she couldn’t do it. She’d seen it all, the thick blade of a traitor’s scythe buried in her brother’s chest, the way he fell to the floor after a few staggered steps, his blood everywhere. She saw it, she saw it all and now those images burned in her mind. They wouldn’t go away.*Ciara O'Connor centric drabble, set during the events of 8x01.
Relationships: Background Clover Ebi/James Ironwood, Background Silver Shamrock, Clover Ebi & Original Character(s), Clover O'Connor & Ciara O'Connor
Series: team clvr drabbles. [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2026052
Kudos: 7





	i got you, brother.

**Author's Note:**

> ah yes welcome to pain.
> 
> just to lay it out before you read; ciara is my original character made for BehindTheCorner's rewrite of rwby, called azre. definitely go check that au out if you can, it's really good! she is clover's younger sister & the leader of team clvr in that universe; & this is the first installment in any drabbles i decide to write for team clvr. all will be compliant with azre, & you mostly don't need to read that fic to get anything written in these but i would still highly recommend. ♥
> 
> also hers & clover's last name is o'connor in the azre universe.
> 
> remember owls love comments! ♥

When she was younger, Ciara had hated hospitals. You always had to remain quiet, head down, walk as quickly as you could to get into a room and out of sight away from the various doctors and nurses who were just “doing their jobs.” She hated how _lifeless_ it felt in those clinical walls, just stark white with all those beeping machines and squeaky footsteps along the ultra clean floors. She hated that these were places where people went into and never came out from.

There were no beeping machines in this room. No squeaky footwear. No nurses or doctors running in and out like there was a fire under their ass.

Just Clover.

She hadn’t been able to look away since she’d come into the makeshift morgue; when she first came into the room, it felt like her feet had been rooted to the floor when she saw his body … her _brother_ , lying there lifeless on the slab. Unmoving. It had only been Vionn’s hand on her shoulder that seemed to jolt her back to life, but it was a cruel mockery. Jilted steps like a marionette, left foot, then right; until she stood beside him.

The rest of Team CLVR waited at the door, hesitant to join their leader. Lavender seemed expressionless as she always did but there was a deep grief in her eyes, knowing her friend’s pain. Rhiannon hadn’t been able to turn off the tears that slid down her cheeks, unable to provide the help she so dearly wished for her girlfriend and Vionn … he was keeping it all together in her stead. He’d always been her number two for a reason. Sensing that Ciara wouldn’t allow herself what she needed with an audience, his hands pressed gently on Rhiannon’s shoulders to guide the small, blue haired faunus away, Lavender following behind them with a brief nod to her leader.

James had tried to visit, before he went to see Winter. He lingered at the doorway, unsure on how to help someone who was _more_ than just one of his students, a girl he’d seen grow from the gritty streets of Mantle into a headstrong huntress belonging to his academy. His own grief had been forcefully pushed aside like it _always_ had to, for the _greater good_. Those intentions served little to the dark haired girl and they both knew it.

“I’m sorry …”

They blamed themselves. Both would carry the guilt of his death; wondering if there had been another way. Ciara had lost her brother but James … James had lost his _heart_. Clover had meant the world to him. She could barely choke out her response.

“ _Me too_.”

James boots echoing the hall as he turned and went to Winter’s room sounded so far away, she wondered if he had crossed the continent. The space between them felt like that now.

Red rimmed verdant eyes struggled to lift from where they were fixated on the floor beside the slab. She … she couldn’t do it. She’d seen it all, the thick blade of a traitor’s scythe buried in her brother’s chest, the way he fell to the floor after a few staggered steps, his blood _everywhere_ . She saw it, she saw it all and now those images burned in her mind. _They wouldn’t go away_.

She didn’t want to add the image of his unmoving, grey skinned **_corpse_ ** to them too.

Fingers curled tight in the white, hospital issued sheets and Ciara thinks with a burning in her chest how much she hates the colour white. How she hates hospitals. How … how she hates, and hates, and _hates_ —

“Ciara?”

Elm’s voice snapped the young huntress out of her whirlwind of grief, head rising to stare up at the older Ace Op. Grief recognizes grief, Elm long trained to not let those tears fall but even she, someone Ciara had adored and looked up to with her entire being, could do little to hide the heart rending grief in those deep russet eyes. A glance behind the Ace Op and Ciara sees the rest lingering at the doorway. Grief clinging to each of their bones in different ways; trembling clench of Harriet’s fists, the way Marrow’s shoulders slumped, how Vine rubbed the velvet of his sash between his finger and thumb.

Clover wasn’t just hers, her brother. He was a leader, a huntsmen. A protector of Atlas.

He was their friend.

He was _dead._

She wants to break down in Elm’s arms, the older woman always some measure of an older sister, a confidant; but every time the tears threaten to fall, her anger rises and burns in her gut in rebellion. No tears, no sadness, only an addictive wildfire, an inferno of righteous grief. She wants— Ciara doesn’t know what she wants. Only that the black hole of grief and hate and _pain_ she has found herself in never seems to end.

The huntress rights herself with a trembling sigh, not pushing off the way Elm’s hand rests on her shoulder but also not letting herself respond to it with more than a nod. It would be selfish, to co opt their grief too. She had more than enough, so much that she could drown Atlas in it; not safe even all the way up in the stars. Nothing was safe anymore. Clover was supposed to be the _lucky_ one—

_Just my natural luck, I guess._

_Oh shove it, Clo. We both know you’re a cheat._

_Heh. We’ll see about that, brat._

A vicious tremble shakes her body and ironclad will to the core. On the very edge, teetering on the ledge, ready to tumble down headfirst; Ciara bites the inside of her cheek so hard she tastes blood just to regain control. Oain and anger mix well together and the leash is tenuously back in her trembling grasp.

The Ace Ops take place at the foot of the bed, while Ciara can’t bring herself to look up at them, she hears Harriet’s grief laden, angered growl and finds home in it. Enough to let a tear slip down her cheek and resign herself to the way it burns hot down pale, freckled skin.

“I … should we—”

“ _Marrow._ ”

Elm’s voice is motherly but firm, she knows that there’s nothing they can say or do. What’s been done is done. Marrow’s head dipped as Vine let a hand rest on the young man’s shoulder, knowing the awful feeling of futility and their resignation to it.

There was nothing that could be done to bring Clover back. No matter how much they wished.

Finding momentary bravery in his, Ciara forced her gaze to rise and finally, since that last moment in the snow they shared, looked at her brother. Her stomach turned when she found no obvious sign of death, no ghoulish picture of the macabre; just … peacefulness. As cliche as it sounded, almost like he was sleeping.

_Clover, wake up! You promised you’d take me to the academy today. C’monnnn!_

It felt like a knife in her heart. Like she couldn’t breathe, the air too hot in the small room they were in, her skin prickling and burning and,

“I have to go—”

“You can’t be in here!”

The frantic voice of one of the officers stationed in the hallway caused all to still, except Harriet who moved from where she was standing at the foot of the bed to linger in the hallway; Ciara stood beside her. The council members, Camilla and Sleet. Ciara had never paid attention in Government Ed, preferring to pass the hour messing about with Vionn and trying not to get caught by their professor, but she knew of them. Clover … Clover had bitched about them enough whenever he visited the academy after all.

Anger once again took root in her chest, making it home. _What where_ **_they_ ** _doing here?_

Whatever they said didn’t register, only the raised, angry tone of their voices. The footsteps of James leaving the opposite room, no words spoken, only the steady raise of his gun and then. A shot. In the small space of the hallway it made her ears ring, the entirety of her body feel frozen. Beside her she only felt Harriet shift, yet not retreat into the room behind them; Camilla trembling where she stood.

James walked away.

Ciara didn’t look at what remained of Sleet, only giving a small sigh as she turned on her heel back into the room with Harriet behind her. A sharp scrape of the metal legs of a chair as Ciara dragged it to the bed, she took her seat feeling like the entire weight of Remnant rested on her. Crushing her. This grief, this anger … it was inescapable.

Why did it matter what happened to Atlas now?

Without her brother … she was _lost_. Unable to find her way out of the dark.

A small child scrambling for freedom as she wept.

“You … you guys should go. I’m sure Ja — the General needs your help and I … need to call my parents.”

If she was stronger, she could be there for them. Clover was hers, but he was theirs too, he was James'. James was more than a General or a Headmaster to their family and yet now, without Clover to be the bridge, everything felt so distanced. It was all crumbling at the seams, this life she had and she didn’t know how to fix it.

Harriet is the first to leave, with only a passing brush of her hand against Ciara’s shoulder. She understands. They burn the same in their grief and when the time comes, it will pass. Marrow follows her, a brief shared glance between them all that was given. Any other time, she would’ve jumped at the chance to talk to the rookie, yet now … now she just wanted to be alone. Vine and Elm leave last; Elm pressing a kiss to the crown of her head with Vine beside her, understanding the grief stricken huntress more than he might show.

With the mechanical hiss of the automated door closing, she’s alone. With her ghosts, her anger, her grief.

Shifting closer to the bed, Ciara let her head rest against it, almost touching his arm and if she closed her eyes, she could imagine he was just sleeping. That it was all fine, everything would be okay. I _t’ll be okay, won’t it Clo'?_ Her voice echoed in her head, younger, trembling. Ter throat tightened, tears threatening at the corners of her eyes. _I don’t want you to go, I’m scared. What … what if they don’t like me?_

She could almost feel the icy breeze of that day, Clover’s smile shining so bright. His hands heavy but reassuring as he pulled her in for a hug.

_How could they hate you, Ci? You’re my favourite person in the world. They’ll love you._

_I love_ **_you_ ** _, Clo._

_I love you too, Ci._ _Promise me you won’t be scared?_

The dam broke, her shoulders shaking as low, mournful, grief filled sobs filled the air. Her face pressed against his shoulder, hot tears stained greying skin and for a moment, she could almost imagine that he was warm, he was there. _He wasn’t going to leave her._

“I - It’s okay, Clo. I got you, I’m here … I’m here, I’m not going anywhere …”

_I promise._


End file.
